One party leader is close to becoming the next Speaker of the House in the United States Congress and it is not Kevin McCarthy.
In a humiliating and stinging defeat, the Trumpist enabler is apparently still not good enough for the 20 fringe MAGA Republicans (like January 6 insurrectionist supporters and resident low lives Lauren Boebert, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and Matt Gaetz) who have denied him the necessary 218 votes needed to become the next Speaker on three separate ballots.
Mr. McCarthy has garnered no more than 203 votes.
By contrast, newly elected Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, with united support from all the members of his party, has won each ballot with 212 votes.
Looking at the math, 212 votes are a lot closer to the magic number of 218 than 203.
It looks like McCarthy may have been premature to have moved his furniture into the speaker's office.
If McCarthy can not get the support from 16 of the 20 holdouts (at the time of this writing, not likely) and there is no viable Republican alternative that can effectively hold the speaker's gavel, Mr. Jeffries, if his team has not already thought of this, should reach out to the 18 Republican House Candidates that won in districts Joe Biden won in 2020 and see if there are six of them that would like to become Democrats.
This idea may not be as far-fetched as it may have been just hours ago given:
a) These 18 Republicans have a vested interest to prove they can actually participate in governing.
b) Given the debacle of today and how dominant the damaged and ideologically distorted the fringe of the modern Republican Party is, these individuals may think the grass (and their political futures) are greener by switching to the other side.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next day or so.
Hopefully, Mr. Jeffries, seeing a small, yet potential opportunity, will pick up the phone and see what the possibilities are.
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